Founder and CEO of Sequoia Mortgage Capital, Jason Freskos, announced recently that he and his organization are looking to direct more resources into serving mortgage markets. The initiative was launched last year and has been designed to open up new avenues of opportunity to would-be homebuyers with limited income, insufficient credit, and other financial difficulties who cannot qualify for traditional mortgages. The plan has been designed, Jason Freskos explains, with particular respect to those who have been put out of work, lost wages, or have had their businesses suffer as a result of the response to the Coronavirus. However, Jason Freskos points out, the initiative is not limited to those whose hardships have arisen as a direct result of the pandemic.
Jason Freskos: Creating New Avenues to Home Ownership
Jason Freskos and his team at Sequoia Mortgage Capital approached the problem of elevated homeownership barriers due to current events by drafting new and novel lending options, lower interest rates, streamlined loan applications, and more affordable closing costs.
Real estate and financial experts say that those who are motivated to buy homes during this time are severely limited in their ability to pay. But Jason Freskos has observed that while these motivated buyers have less liquid with which to negotiate, they are still qualified buyers in several meaningful ways. Their lack of credit and financial resources is not the result of poor decision making, a lack of motivation, or a want of marketable skills. These individuals, Jason Freskos says, have been elbowed out of the market for entirely artificial reasons.
He asserts, “These are motivated, hard-working, and talented people. They are skilled, have degrees, and have a proven value in an economy that has not been altered by never-seen-before state and federal regulations.” He goes on to say. “Once the pandemic has passed, and the most up-to-date epidemiological models say that it will begin to do so in June of this year, these individuals should be able to go back to work.”
In short, Jason Freskos and Sequoia Mortgage Capital are not counting out Americans who have been elbowed out of business to no fault of their own. He sees them as proven contributors of value to society who will continue to contribute value at the earliest opportunity.
The one caveat to this proposition might be that those who have lost their businesses during the pandemic may need help to rebuild their financial independence once the lockdowns end. If leaders in providing financial products and services like Sequoia Mortgage Capital are able to create a compelling existence proof of the value of the idea, other lenders might take an interest in helping American business owners to rebuild with the same types of novel and lenient options that Sequoia Mortgage Capital is putting on the table.
Jason Freskos on Expanding Lending Opportunities
While many- if not most- lenders are making it more difficult for would-be borrowers to qualify for loans, Jason Freskos wants to go in the opposite direction. He explains, “The fear felt by the average lender is understandable. But they are failing to take into account the character of those who are being squeezed out of the market.”
He argues that instead of taking on a famine mentality, leaders in the lending industry should look at this time as a chance to bring in new customers with generous terms, earn their loyalty, and keep their valuable business long after the pandemic has passed.
He explains that the way to add value to an economy is to do what your competition is afraid to do- to create value that they have failed to create. By reaching out to motivated buyers who are temporarily handicapped by lockdown mandates, he believes he and his team at SMC will do just that. The idea is to breathe much-needed financial life into a vibrant and productive cross-section of the public. If successful, SMC will win a significant corner on the market and will have established itself as a financial services provider with the courage to do good even in uncertain times.